This invention relates generally to social networking, and in particular to providing a content access management system for external content owners by a social networking system.
Content owners on the internet often limit the audience for their content to individuals who satisfy pre-determined criteria. Examples of such audience restrictions include individuals above a certain age, individuals within a particular geographic area, and individuals who have paid for access to content (for instance, via content subscriptions). In order to access such content, individuals must provide credentials proving that the pre-determined criteria are satisfied. For instance, an individual might verify his age using an online form, an individual's location might be determined through the individual's IP address, and an individual might prove that he has paid for access to content using a password provided by the content owner.
Content for the purposes described herein includes, but is not limited to, text (such as articles, magazines, news, and books), media (such as video and audio), images, documents and other data, and games. For example, a user may request access to a movie that requires the user to be a certain age, or may attempt to read a journal article that requires purchasing the article. In addition, content owners may restrict access to content portals, such as streaming video or music services, content websites, communications portals (such as VoiP services and message boards), online game services or any other content venue behind content paywalls, which require a user to pay for access to the content portal. For example, a user may attempt to stream a movie from a streaming video service with internet access that requires membership with the service, or may attempt to video call a friend through a VoiP service that requires pre-paid video call minutes. Likewise, a user might attempt to play a game through an online game service that requires proof of a subscription to the game service.
The management of a user's personal and financial verification information is accompanied a host of privacy issues. Encryption and other web and data security measures are used to protect verification information, but these measures can be expensive for content owners to maintain. Further, the pre-determined access criteria set by content owners can vary by content item and type, complicating access management. Finally, the access criteria established by one content owner is inflexible in application to the content of another content owner, requiring each content owner to separately establish and maintain access criteria and security measures, resulting in inefficient and non-overlapping verification systems between content owners.